The present disclosure concerns the alleviation and control of odors in personal care products, in particular, odors associated with aldehydes.
Disposable personal care products perform a needed function in today's busy society, freeing caregivers and users from the chore of washing reusable products and allowing for the quick and easy disposal of body wastes. As leakage issues have been reduced because of improved designs, the control of odors has become more important to the consumer. This is a particular concern to users of incontinence products.
Odor is often used by consumers as a signal that a personal care product should be changed. The detection of the odor depends, however, on the acuity of the sense of smell of the consumer, an acuity that often declines with age. Relying on the odor of the product also means that the odor must become offensive before the product is changed, an unacceptable signal.
Many technologies have been evaluated in an attempt to reduce the odors that emanate from these products during use. For example, an activated carbon ink printed liner for incontinence pads was recently introduced. Many urine odor ranking panel (ORP) studies have shown improvements in odor for the carbon-treated liner. However, complete elimination of odor has not been achieved with activated carbon except at levels that are not commercially viable for reasons of cost and/or migration. It is important that anything added to a personal care product to reduce odor should remain in place and not migrate through the product.
There remains a need for a treatment for absorbent articles with improved odor control.